Book Review – Stones of Abraxas

Author: K. Osborn Sullivan
Cover Artist: Arturo Delgado
Publisher: Medallion Press
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: July, 2006

In STONES OF ABRAXAS, K. Osborn Sullivan has created an entertaining first fantasy novel for young adults, though some awkwardness in execution and too-conventional elements make it less immersive and compelling than it could be and than her future efforts will likely be.

David Stanhope, a 12 year-old with a 14 year-old sister, Amanda, lives in the suburbs outside Chicago. He has foolish and abusive instructors, even though his father is the shop teacher at the high school and his mother is the head librarian at his middle school. On the last day before summer vacation, we’ll spend twenty-plus pages reading about David’s best friends and their nicknames, the neighbors and their jobs and tendencies, a hypochondriac cousin, the family’s planned vacation in a rustic cottage, and his dad’s out-of-town teachers’ conference. I wish this preamble had sped by faster, because it doesn’t impact the bulk of the tale which takes place in an alternate world accessed through an unusual gem apparently forgotten in the family’s attic. Fifteen hundred years ago, it became necessary to separate the once-unified world, and the natural earth, Terra, was created alongside magical Abraxas. Once David, Amanda, and their mom are transported there by a honkin’ big ruby, the story really begins.

In Abraxas, different species control different-colored Stones and a Shield with power that was used to implement the Separation. If brought back together by the evil magician, Adrian, these could be used to make him invulnerable. This is one of the parts of the plot that doesn’t feel very fresh, but I did enjoy learning which creatures turned out to be “real” versus imaginary, and I thought the author’s collection of ruling races was unexpected and fun. Also existing in Abraxas are other spare characters of mythology like the Sphinx, a Harpy, and the Minotaur. These dethroned guardians of the gems who spend their hours playing cards in the castle basement (as depicted on the book’s cover so I’m not spoiling any surprises) were some of my favorite characters, because they unfolded with more oddness and mystery than those above-ground. There’s even a hint that the monster in the moat might have an analog in a Scottish lake in Terra, and the revelations of the natures and interrelationships of all these beings is, to my mind, the greatest appeal of the world and one that I’d welcome seeing expanded in later adventures.

I appreciate that FBS makes it a point to review new authors and smaller publishers that often don’t get reviewed, so I think it’s only fair to point out what can unfortunately divide promising titles from the more polished pack. For me, this book’s biggest problems were in the beginning, which discouraged me from reading on, and that would’ve been a shame, since none of those elements were ultimately pertinent to the main story and could have been excised without loss. One gotcha was the repeated reference, from the earliest pages including the Cast of Characters, to anachronistic details I don’t believe kids of the protagonists’ ages would know. Will most twelve year-olds understand the off-handed allusions to “flower children”, Grandma’s 1976 Ford Pinto, or know that the Pinto’s gas tank was reputed to explode after minor collisions? I found it a long journey for a joke to have an originally cheap, thirty year-old car still running, and wondered where they’d find the regular, not unleaded, gas for it. Another distraction of being as crusty and ancient as I am was that after such pointed references to hippies and Ford Pintos, the name Abraxas kept reminding me of the Santana album from 1970 and wondering whether it was the author’s inspiration.

Also, a leading Cast of Characters is commonly seen among new authors, but is rare among the seasoned. While a play, limited in exposition and description by its very form, may need such a starting point for the characters, non-epic novels shouldn’t. And even among serious epics, the most celebrated writers seem to have decided that rather than providing a massive download in the beginning, it’s more engaging to let readers encounter characters in the context of the action where they’ll be most compelling and mentally “sticky”, reserving lengthy background for appendices readers can plumb or avoid as desired.

To me, a preliminary CoC forewarns there may be many more named and elaborately-described characters than will be essential to the unfolding of the plot, and further, it may portend a too-diffuse story focus or lack of ruthless-enough editing. Sometimes, I sense a writer has joyfully created such extensive histories and interconnections that he doesn’t want readers to miss a syllable, despite the fact the real story hasn’t even begun, so there’s no reason yet for a reader to care about these characters or retain this information. But whatever the motivation, when reading about the fantastic, getting a preview of every amazing being to come- and especially in similar verbiage as will occur later in the text- leaves the actual encounter during the story with a ho-hum quality, devoid of wonder when it matters the most.

Aside from these observations, which I mention as general gripes and which hardly occur uniquely in this young adult novel, Osborn has also achieved some very nice effects in STONES OF ABRAXAS. I think her created world is interesting and complex enough to explore at length, and she’s certainly left herself space for sequels. The lead characters and their adventures are consistently kid-scaled, and after arriving in Abraxas, their thoughts and actions ring true for their ages and personalities. They don’t have to suddenly acquire new brilliance, maturity, or the supernatural powers of prodigies for the sake of the plot. Their exposure to the new world and the impending crisis are mediated by their parents and other adults who, refreshingly, do not allow the kids to be burdened with the weight of the worst. This creates necessary fuel for the kids’ curiosities, and will trigger situations that derail and mislead them. Despite the strange fascinations of the environment and the dreadfulness of the dilemma, the kids remain pretty normal to the end, which begins to feel, in a genre now exploding with exceptionally great or awful specimens, quite unusual indeed.

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